Ocean State plays Mamet's 'Race' card It's inarguable that to some extent racism in America is a disease that the civil rights era did not completely inoculate this country against. The argument is about exactly what that extent has been, and David Mamet's provocative play Race explores that matter with fulminating energy and some insight.

Eye of the beholder The male gaze. Men can think of it as merely admiring, complimentary. Woman may consider it creepy. Such is the annoying conflict between the two sub-species that Wilbury Group is examining with Annie Baker's 'Body Awareness.'

Appetite for destruction 'Social Creatures,' by Jackie Sibblies Drury, is getting a valiant effort to bring it to life, thanks to a talented cast and brave-hearted direction by Curt Columbus. But, as with the zombie menace it depicts, that would be quite a tall order.

Square peg, round hole Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was such a dramatic indictment of the culture of the time that it was made into a play the very next year, adapted by Dale Wasserman.

Paying their dues It may have been a latecomer as a rock musical, arriving 19 years after Hair rattled the boards in 1967, but Rent is overflowing with everything there is to love about both musicals and high-energy music.

Mind games The value of imagination, the nature of trust and betrayal, the responsibilities of compassion, the uncertainty of innocence — these are all facets of John Guare's gem of a play Six Degrees of Separation , which is getting a surprisingly moving production by Epic Theatre Company (through February 24), directed by Matt Fraza.

Music and madness Poor Antonio Salieri. Try as he might to make his compositions sound more Germanic, the Lombardy-born court composer was forever grouped with other Italians in their suspected nefarious cabals.

Simon being simple Neil Simon's comic fable Fools is getting a talented and chuckle-packed production by Ocean State Theatre Company (through February 10), which might have mildly annoyed the playwright if he knew.

Bountiful simplicity Since there are more Italian restaurants on Federal Hill than potholes on Providence sidestreets, it's easy for newcomers without favorite spots to just go home and order Chinese delivered.

The Devil inside As voluminous Russian novels go, none could be boiled down to a 90-minute stage adaptation with unsurprising economy as well as Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment , which Trinity Repertory Company is proving with authority and imagination (through February 24).